enlightenment

Q: Is enlightenment continuous or step-wise?
A: It’s already there. It’s just removing the lid of the mind. The only factor which prevents the experience of enlightenment is the mind. This is because the mind is clutter, right? Agendas, a lot of things, the mind is connecting to a lot of things. So many things are happening in the mind. What happens is that it envelops a subtle aspect called completion. Enlightenment is completion, fulfillment, oneness. Division is maintained by the mind. “Me, I’m different…“ Mind is given to understand the world, to taste an experience and express in the world. When mind is constantly working, it always suppresses the enlightenment in you. However, the moment mind is taken away… How can mind be taken away? You cannot fight directly with the mind. This means you are energising the mind. Mind ensures it becomes stronger, it stays stronger. However when you ignore the mind and do not energise it… for example, let’s say I don’t use this hand for one year. If I don’t use any of the muscles in this hand for one year, what will happen to it? It will become very weak. Similarly, if you are not using your mind, you are just being the flow. You are flowing through life. Whatever happens is happening through you. You are not worried about it. You flow through life. After some time the mind will not know what to do with you. At that time it becomes diluted, and the experience that you will have will be that of silence inside. When mind is not active, you are silent inside. All sound is made by the mind. If this inner silence becomes consistent and continuous for some time, then slowly, slowly you will start experiencing completion within. You will be completely happy with whatever you are and whatever you have. Then you will realise that the mind is what prevents that happiness, and that total happiness is enlightenment – the bliss state, the state of satchitananda, happiness for no reason. Even when energies circulate inside you in an intense way, you will experience the same.
We were doing Conscious Walking this morning. When we were walking consciously, when we were circulating the energy within our auric field, our energy zone, it gave tremendous happiness. One lady felt like dancing! This is because the energy flow which is usually dissipated, was not allowed to go outside. Usually we are like a pot with a lot of holes. Whatever water you pour into it, gets dissipated sooner or later. That’s the way our structure is. That is why we are so tired by evening time. Children on the other hand, are not tired by evening time. We are tired because we have a lot of energy loss. We walked consciously for 30 minutes, and the energisation was much higher than 3 hours of meditation. Many of the participants felt it. Some of them normally could not walk, but today they walked without a problem. Why is it happening? It’s because the mind is not disturbing you, and you are thus perfect, you are full, you are complete. That is why.
So enlightenment is already in you. It doesn’t come from outside. It’s a spark, a kiss from inside. You are kissed from inside. Imagine an egg. If it is broken from the outside, it’s the end of a life. If it’s broken from the inside, it’s a new life. It’s an awakening happening from inside and this awakening is waiting to happen. It’s there. It has always existed there. The lamp is already burning, but there are so many blankets on top of it that you cannot see the light. It’s already blowing inside you. It can’t be coming from outside anyway. If you asked me at what moment it could happen, I would say, at the time the mind is still. Because a still mind is like a still pond – you can see your image clearly. Normally it’s a ruffled pond, which means you cannot see your image clearly. Seeing yourself clearly refers to the permanence in you, to seeing the permanent aspect of you which is inside. That already exists. The reason we cannot see it is because of the waves of the mind. Otherwise it’s there.Q: Ramana Maharishi said there was no mind.
A: For him there was no mind. Ramana Maharishi’s mind dissolved. But you have the mind.Q: Now if we give so much importance to the mind, does the mind become a hurdle?
A: Abolutely. Ramana Maharishi’s mind fully dissolved. When you are operating at the level of complete consciousness, the mind dissolves because it has no purpose there. You are not the doer any more, you are not doing, it’s happening through you. Everything is flowing through you. It’s a continuous, consistent flow. Then mind has no purpose. Ramana Maharishi’s mother came to him and said,“Tell me something,“. So he looked at her and nothing happened in this canvas because there was no mind to make an emotion. She thought he was maybe ’in silence’ so she gave him a piece of slate and a pencil to write on. He looked at the slate, looked at the pencil and scratched a few lines. Even the presence of his mother didn’t create anything inside because the canvas was totally empty, still, no mind. So you will operate in that state of mind where there is nothing happening in the brain. Mind creates all sorts of ruffles in the brain. When your mind is totally dissolved, there is no agenda, no plan, no mind, no activity in the brain. It’s absolute bliss all the time, you are always happy. Whether you have something or not, you are happy. Whether you have a relationship or not, you are happy. Everything is ok, and you take it as it comes. That is why Haidakhan Baba used to say,“If you come to me with love, I give you love. I am the perfect mirror because there is no mind.“ Mind maintains your ego, right? When ego is there, you are in a perfect mirror because you have to show you. When you don’t have ego, you are everything. You are the universe. So when somebody comes to you, all you feel is love. When somebody comes to me with love, I express love. When somebody comes to me with lust, I express lust. When somebody comes to me with anger, I give anger. What he meant was that, as a perfect mirror, you look at the mirror and receive what you are. In this way you are always empty and you are always peaceful. There is nothing to prove. Nothing to do. Nothing to worry about. No anxiety, no fear. Nothing. In that mode what you give is just pure love. The mind factor is causing this whole confusion. Like,“I want to take what is in this pocket also.“ This is the mind talking. When there is no mind, there is nothing telling you that you want more, because you are already sufficient. Self-sufficient. So when Ramana Maharishi said that there is no mind, that means that he had no mind. That state is achievable when you are not using the mind. It means that when you are always calculating, creating, when you are worried, when you are anxious, then the mind is active because you need storage space for all these. That’s the mind. When you do not have anxiety, when you do not have fear, you are in full acceptance mode, you are happy with life, you are satisfied with what you have, and mind will become useless. Then you connect more and more to your consciousness, and mind merges with the consciousness, it dissolves.
Why has god given the mind? It is for one reason. Mind has to act a s a medium, as a translator. Mind with your tongue makes you feel the taste. If you are watching TV and eating food, do you think you will know the taste? Mind is elsewhere. When mind is with your eyes, you see. Otherwise you just look. When mind is with your ears, you actually listen. Otherwise you hear, but you don’t listen. When something is on your skin, you feel. Otherwise if something touches you, you may not even know it is touching you. So the mind was created as a medium, as a translator to experience the world. However when mind takes over and takes charge, “I am the boss,“ then there is a problem. It’s as if the clerical staff were given the CEO position without eligibility. It’s almost like that i.e. it makes many decisions and makes you jump like a monkey. So this is exactly what’s happening. When Ramana Maharishi said,“I am not bound by the mind,“ it was true. He was the king. When you are bound by the mind you are a slave. There is the difference. If you want to be the king, you cannot be bound i.e. you should not have the mind.Q: In the same vein, is mind the creator of thought?
A: Mind is the base of thought. Thought sits in the mind.Q: If thoughts come out of our past karmas, then we do not have control over them.
A: Impulse of impressions are the basis. They are the seeds. They sit in the causal layer. When the mind evaporates, even the causal layer is burnt. When the soul leaves your body, it picks up the causal layer, where all the seeds of impressions are sitting. It also contains your character. It also contains your constitution. It’s like a bag with a lot of pockets. It picks up the bag and it leaves the body and it pulls this bag on a rope for the next body. That is why every child has a distinct character, a distinct constitution, and awareness level. It is because all of this is transferred. Thus every impression is sitting there. However, these impressions dry up when there is no mind. ’When there is no mind’ means you have no further desires, so you don’t need the mind to execute them. The reason you need the mind to understand a desire is because of the experience factor. For example, if you want to experience fatherhood, you have to become a father or you need to adopt somebody and feel fatherhood. If that is not happening, you can’t experience it. Like that, the mind is kept in that mode, so that you can experience every flavour of life. Otherwise you don’t need the mind. That’s the way it goes. Impressions are all sitting there as long as there is a desire. When all the impressions are dried up, they cannot provoke a desire,and if there is no desire, then there is no birth. If there is no desire, there is no food for karma. Karma cannot be provoked if there are no desires, so there is no further life.Q: How do you differentiate between a thought and bhaav?
A: A thought is the basis. The first level of creation is a thought. For example, you had the thought,“I must have an icecream.“ Then you told Manjari Babi,“Please give me an icecream.“ Manjari Babi said,“I cannot give it to you.“ So you kept the thought inside. Then you went and told Neha,“Can you please give me an icecream? Don’t tell Manjari Babi“ So the thought is repeated in multiple dimensions in various situations. Neha says,“I won’t tell Manjari Babi, I’ll give you an icecream.“ So there was a communication. A word happened. In both cases you have used energy and sometimes an emotion about it. When there is an emotion, there is a reaction. If there is no emotion, it is just a word, it comes and goes. Then Neha gives you an icecream and you consume it. You have fulfillment.
So thought is the first level of creation, word or expression is the second, and culmination of fulfillment is the third. We operate in these three levels every day, in every moment. This is fundamental. Bhaav is an aspect involved in it. For example, you went to a temple and you felt the presence of Bhagawan Krishna and you really lived the presence, and felt it. You chanted and you had a great experience out of it and came back. This is all because of bhaav. On the other hand, another person goes to the temple, sees the idol saying, “Ok, it’s Lord Krishna, I appreciate it,“ gives the offering and goes back. Two people went to the same place with a different effect. That flavour is bhaav. That has nothing to do with thought per se. The first level of creation is thought – thought, word, action. This is the chronology of karma. And thought, word, action is provoked by vasana. If you don’t have an inclination for something, you won’t have a thought for it. Beyond inclination is impression. Impression creates karma, it is a seed which creates a desire. Desire creates karma, karma creates a thought, thought creates a word or expression and then a culmination, an action. So numerous thoughts, less words or expression, less action. This is how it goes.Q: How to generate more bhaav?
A: Bhaav always happens when your awareness grows. The fundamental awareness is ’ego is bothering me’. How do you know this? You know you are acting based on ego, when you keep your identity very strong,“I am like this, I am so and so…“ You struggle to keep your image intact based on ego in the society. Then you can change the mode and say,“I am … I am here to experience Lord Krishna, or Bhagawan Baba or something.“ Then you start being aware, “Most of my functions are not in my control – heartbeat, circulation, respiration, digestion, excretion…“ whatever, consider everything about your existence that is not in your control. You have a mind which overreacts to situations, and says,“I am controlling all of this.“ Then you realise, “This is not true. The truth is that all my functions are not in my control. Then what am I controlling?“ Awareness grows. This introspection makes awareness grow. When your awareness starts growing in that direction, you start detaching from the ego plane. The moment you detach from the ego plane, it’s bhakti, devotion and bhaav is spontaneous. When you understand, “Oh, this is all happening through me, how wonderful!“, then you shift from doership to ’wondership’, and you exclaim with wonder, “Oh, God, what an amazing creation!“ Everything you see is amazing. Every person is amazing. Every situation is amazing. It’s all bhaav then. Then the full life is bhaav. That is what Sudha, Krishna Das…are. All these people are embodiments of bhaav. They are of higher awareness. They know there is nothing egoistic to be proud of. It is all happening and we are being unnecessarily proud of something very silly which we don’t even control such as the body. For example, take a big, muscular body. You spend one week in bed, and the muscles all go. So after a lot of effort you created a lot of muscles, yet you can’t maintain it. In this way everything you see has no value because it’s all temporary. It’s all passing. Then we are unnecessarily quoting everything with ego. When this awareness grows to that level, you immediately start feeling that this is not me, this is nothing. What you seem to be is not at all the real thing. Then bhaav happens and you become an embodiment of bhaav.

Reaction vs. Response

Q: When we know things are not correct, and we expect them to be proper, how do we react? Sometimes we get angry, sometimes we feel bad…
A: Understand your response levels. You can handle your life in two ways. One way is to get angry, upset, etc. That means you are operating from emotion. Emotion is directly related to expectation. There is another way of operating – which uses the budhi, intellect. When you use your intellect, you respond. Ok, this situation is happening, let me handle it. This is a practice. You have to train yourself for it. Always train yourself to use your intellect, and do not react using your emotion. Most of us react using emotion, “I knew this person couldn’t do it, bla,bla…“ It goes on. It’s reaction. Reaction always weakens you. It makes you dull. It sucks more energy. However, at the same time, you can say “Ok, you have a problem, sit down. Let’s discuss.“ That is response. Response is from the budhi. Budhi always responds, mind always reacts. So if you consistently use your intellect, there will be less catastrophes. Life will be smooth. There will be no fights, no anger, no hatred. All those things won’t be there. However, if you are constantly using your emotion, then all the reactions and all the catastrophes will be there. This is the point. Train yourself to use the intellect more. Take a step backwards and look at every situation.“Ok, let the situation that is unfolding beyond control, happen. I am looking at it objectively, and responding.“Q: Do we do this later?
A: No, immediately. Take a little while. “Please, let me understand what the issue is“, so that you are using your brain, and not your emotion. Usually every reaction is from emotion. Emotion also contains prejudices, such as “I knew this guy was an idiot“ etc. These are all prejudices. When you’ve already branded a person in a particular mode, you react. You do not allow the person to be different. That is why some people say, “Ok, I knew this guy, I used to meet him at the pub. Now he is in saint mode. How could he be a saint?“ Why do you underestimate somebody? Enlightenment can happen in one night! We can never underestimate anybody. When you say you know the person, that itself is fundamentally wrong. I know you as an identification. I do not know you as a person. I know you by your name, that’s the name given by your parents and by which society knows you. Apart from that, do I know you? It’s not possible, because you are a constitution, you are a karmic being, and you have a particular agenda of life. This is all you. Thus we can never underestimate anybody. Reaction always happens when ignorance is very strong. It means we are prejudiced, we have decided this person is like that, etc. Many times certain situations cause a particular response in people. A person may be very cool, and very nice, but in a particular situation, with a particular set of people, that person can be very violent, because the environment creates that effect in the person. So can you brand him as always having a violent personality? This is the point. In this way various situations, as well as character, cause a difference in a person’s level of response. We can never say,“This is the person and I know him/her.“ It’s not possible. Everybody is a karmic being and all have their own unique flavours. You have to accept a person as a situation or a surrounding. It keeps changing. Allow that flexibility in everybody. Next time I meet you it could be different. Maybe you will have reached that silence inside, who knows? Everything is possible, right? Life is never stagnant. Life is always changeable so anything can happen. There’s no guarantee also that I might meet you next time. Because I’ll meet you only if I’m alive. That is what Lord Krishna said in the story.

A STORY OF KRISHNA AND YUDHISTHIRA on promises

Krishna and Pandavas water their horses

Upon meeting a beggar, Yudhisthira told the beggar to come again to the battlefield, and that he would give him something then. He said,“I can’t give you any money now, come again, and I’ll give you some. Krishna was laughing because Yudhisthira was so confident that he would still be alive the next day to give the beggar some money. Krishna said,“I am not too sure because I am in the battlefield.“

See, the avatar says he is not sure that he will even exist the next day to give money to beggars, while a person who has no awareness is absolutely sure saying, “Come back, I will give it to you tomorrow.“ We are operating in that level. That is why I have said, even if you are promising something to a child, you must deliver as soon as possible because we haven’t seen our future. We do not know how many breaths we have left. If you do not fulfil what you have promised, you will have to come back and start the story again. Instead, if you complete every moment and go, there is nothing pending. This is liberation. If you cannot do it, do not promise and do not even think of it. Even if you think you want to do it, you must do it because thought is the first level of creation. It’s written in the canvas. For example, you want to help him. Though, it is not articulated, the first level of creation has already happened. Then if you use the words, “I want to help him,“ that means you have already committed. Then you must help, otherwise it’s incomplete. This is how it works. That is what Lord Krishna said, “Even if he is a beggar, don’t underestimate him. He may come and ask you in a different form, probably in a different life. So if you can’t give, don’t promise.“ Better not to promise, that way life becomes simple.
Before I close the satsang, I would like to say something which is can serve as a daily practice. Every day when you wake up, just have one thought, “Am I asking for more from the Earth or am I giving more to the Earth?“ If the answer is that you are giving more to the Earth than you are asking for, then you are on the right track. If you are asking much more from, than you are giving to Earth, then do something about it. That track is not the right one. That is the track towards disappointment and sorrows. If you are asking more and more from the Earth and giving nothing to the Earth (which means giving what you have, what you have you share), if you are giving nothing and you are only using the earth selfishly for your gratification, then you are on a collision course. You are heading towards more and more sorrows. This is because the more expectation, the more disappointment. This thought is an important thought in the path of liberation. Please understand. “Am I giving back to the Earth more than I am taking?“ I am sure most of you will be surprised if you are honest with that answer. Don’t think that going to a temple and doing bhajans, etc. is for the Earth. That is for you. What have you actually done for the world? When I say earth, it includes all beings on the Earth whether it is human beings, animals, birds, plants. Everything is part of Earth. Your family, other families, consider everything. Everything is part of it. What is your contribution to this world? Is it spiritual? It is very, very important. If you are clear about this question and if you can give an honest answer, then you have started the journey to the path of liberation. If you are asking more from the Earth and you do not care about giving back, please understand that more lives are coming for you. You are definitely going to come back here. Definitely. Because if you have to use this earth for your gratification, for your life, you must pay. There is no free meal. It has to be paid. How do you pay? Through compassion. The best cash is compassion. The best medium of compassion is transaction. The more compassionate you are, the more spontaneous you are to the world outside while living, and you will definitely reduce life times. You don’t need any guru to tell you this. This is something which you can handle yourself. No guru needs to tell you that you have got so many marks. This is to mark yourself. No need to share it even with your family, in the sense that you don’t even need to compare with each other. It’s an individual journey. You be compassionate. Don’t think, “My wife is compassionate, I can be something different.“ It is not so. Everybody is individualistic. Just ask the question, “Am I taking more or am I giving more?“

Life is never stagnant. Life is always changeable so anything can happen…

While I was sitting with Mohanji today afternoon, I saw him checking posts on Facebook. Suddenly he came across a picture of a young boy sitting next to his mother, waiting for her to wake up. However, his mother was not sleeping. They were outside, in Gaza war. He didn’t understand his mother was dead. She won’t wake up ever again. Mohanji’s subtlety couldn’t ignore the suffering. He immediately surged into action. He started typing, and after five minutes his consciousness delivered this message.

Love,

Bilja

Awareness is the key. An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind. These are not my words. This is a famous truth. There is no way we can buy justice through wars. One man’s gain is always another man’s loss. When will we understand that?

How many children became orphans in the last 7 days! How many children died! How many people lost everything? Who will answer? In the name of what is this? Land? Power? Politics? Supremacy? When will man understand? Gaza is burning. The world’s conscience is burning even if we try our best to ignore it.

Whether it be Gaza or any other country where beings are bound or murdered, conscience must get burnt.

Awareness is the key. An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind. These are not my words. This is a famous truth. There is no way we can buy justice through wars. One man’s gain is always another man’s loss. When will we understand that?

Our soul cannot be owned by any body. Likewise, earth cannot be owned by any being. It can only be used for a certain period of time. What is expected during this time, is peaceful co-existence.

Earth cannot be owned by any being. It can only be used for a certain period of time. What is expected during this time, is peaceful co-existence.

Earth cannot be owned by any. Earth is just a platform. Temporary possessions gives illusion of ownership. Transactions in paper makes us feel proud and money’s worth. But, when we die, we leave the paper and the property behind. Who owns earth?

Who will answer for the deaths and destructions that takes place in the name of land, religion and politics? All people are the same. All countries are the same. None higher or lower. None have the right to oppress or suppress another. Life must continue. When we walk on the blood paved paths of existence, our feet must hurt. Tons of accumulated atrocities and murders have weakened the natural vibration of earth and make it lesser and lesser habitable.

When emotions are ruling, wars are inevitable. Expect the backlash. Hit on conscience causes guilt. Guilt travels through time and lives. When collective guilt takes over, destruction takes place. We may fall lucky to shed the body earlier than the backlash to express itself fully. But, we may either come back or our own generations to come will curse the generations past for taking the soul out of earth, for killing the “life” of earth. None can escape the fruits of his action. This is an eternal truth. To keep a blind eye towards a crime is equal to committing it.

When emotions are ruling, wars are inevitable.

We are too selfish. We only like to sit back in the virtual world and watch the pictures of dead women and children on the facebook and hit “like” in support of the cause, irrespective of whether it is towards or against. We live in the artificial world of make believe and cheat ourselves in believing that everything is good outside there and inside within our own household. The children brought up completely in the virtual world are total misfits in the world outside. Everything happens for them in the virtual world and they cannot care less for other people’s suffering. We never consider even once that inertia has indeed left us totally bound and helpless. The only part of the body that actually moves are the fingers which click “like” on Facebook.

Now, I know that even these words here are useless, I know, because it is not possible for individual consciousness to fight against the gross and ugly collective consciousness hell bound for destruction and death. Useless because the comfort zone oriented man will just discard positive words as tall order and discard any potential for collective action. I know very well that even if a 1000 of us join hands against human atrocities, we will all be crushed mercilessly. The only permanent solution is increased awareness and different system of education.

Motherhood should happen in a more profound way. No mother will order the killing of any children. It has always been man. Love should prevail through motherliness.

Motherhood should happen in a more profound way. No mother will order the killing of any children. It has always been man. Love should prevail through motherliness.

Now, this mail is meant as food for thought. I am with the suffering and helpless. I love those who even help heal a small wound of the body or mind.

I am always hoping for Peace to prevail. Again, collective consciousness is too strong to grow any seeds of sensitiveness. Yet, let us not give up hope. Let us grow seeds in our own garden and distribute selflessly to other’s garden, too.

Experience vs. suppression; Does Jnana (knowledge) increase the ego; At which point is a person ready to become Guru; Path of annihilation; Why do we change Gurus; Whatever you deserve, you will get; Shaktipat is changing your software; How do we know that our Guru is the right one; Should one ask people to come for meditation; We can only start walking from where we stand now; Why is surrender so difficult, etc.

The most loving communion is possible only at the depth of one’s consciousness

Three levels of creation are thought-word and action. The fourth level of creation is collective consciousness. A team of people thinks that you are a good man. That affects you. Thoughts, words and actions are coming from vasanas, basic inherent desire. Constitution creates thought, word and action. Behind the vasana is the Karma. This is the clock … karma – vasana –thought, word and action and again it creates karma. That is why we keep taking birth after birth. We cannot stop it because we produce a new karma every moment. Then more desires happen and more thoughts happen. The ingredients of one’s karmic baggage will also consist of the baggage of the clan (inherited from ancestors), family as well as society. But, we could say that all these are our chosen baggage as we chose the parents as well as the corresponding experiences among a set of people and places.

If someone does not have a desire to smoke, he will never smoke. If you suppress something, it will sprout at the right point in time. You cannot suppress something in life and move ahead. You cannot suppress something for a long period of time. It is like a spring. If kept pressed for some time, one time you have to take your hand out. It springs up. It bounces back. Similarly, whatever you suppress, desire will spring up and will become a reality in your life at some point of time. You must experience things and move on.

Each person expresses based on the consciousness that he exists in. If you require lot of knowledge to satisfy intellect, then you will read a lot. You will join classes to acquire knowledge. You will be provoked to attend classes. Desire makes you move from one place to another. Desire for an ice cream will take you to the place where you can get ice cream. When you want an ice cream you may also pull your friend with you. ‘I do not like an ice cream and he also should not!’ It does not happen like that. Each individual is complete by himself/herself. You come together because karma brings you together. Otherwise you cannot come together, you will not express anything together.

The place where you are born, the events you went through, everything is predetermined through your Prarabdha karma, the karma which provoked an existence. Uncompleted desires at the time of death, provoked this existence. You went to the right womb and right place, where you can complete this journey. We take birth and go through the journey. While we are going through, we add more karma. But we do not have enough petrol to complete the added journey.Your agenda increases. So we take another birth with more fuel (breath), and continue our journey in a new car (body)!

What is jnyana? Jnyana or knowledge is only for the mind or intellect, mostly intellect. If jnyana becomes a rope to climb higher in spirituality, then it is good. If jnyana creates ego, it becomes a burden. Craving for understanding of the fabric of life is in everybody. When we take birth, we operate from limited consciousness. Mind, the intellect (or buddhi) is from this life. The consciousness is from the other lives. The soul which is the petrol of your car, cannot operate on this level if you do not allow it to. How will you reach your soul? The same mind which goes out with the senses should be brought back. Sheath by sheath it should penetrate. Then it reaches the soul. That is why sadhana has to be intense. Desires may be intense in the beginning, then, once fulfilled, they will drop off. When you achieve Shiva, desires are not there.

Q. If Jnyana creates Ego; and it blocks the progress, how do we stop it?

A: First understanding, then observation. Observe your thought, word and action. You have two choices to deal with the society- 1. to react, and 2. to respond.

Reaction is always a consort of emotions. It always originates from emotions. When you are agitated or someone abuses you, you react. Buddhi or intellect is out of focus at that time. Buddhi becomes blurred and does not exist at the time of reaction. This is why whenever you get angry, since intellect is not there to control it, you will regret later.

When you respond, buddhi is working. Emotions are not circulating. Response will have longevity. Reactions have a short life and also it leads to catastrophes of life.

Life gets deeply affected when person is in the reactionary mode all the time. It creates a lot of guilts and calamities. All this needs – is to be observed. When you express something, observe. E.g: When you get angry– you have to express anger, so that the other person understands. Express anger, but do not get emotionally involved with it. A child is sick and is not taking medicines. Mother gets angry and says, “I will not give you sweets if you do not take medicine!” Here, mother is not angry with the child, she is doing it out of love. At the same time, if you are emotional about it, or you behave in an authoritative or ownership way, the mother-child relationship gets strained.

Knowledge or jnyana is not a burden, provided it is useful for your further journey. Knowledge is a burden if it becomes intellectual weight. If knowledge is a key to open a door, it is good. If you are using knowledge to “show off ” in front of others, or using it to express your ego, it is a burden for you. “In the feast of EGO everyone goes home HUNGRY”. No one is satisfied with ego. We all live this way!

Anger, ego, hatred – everything can be tackled only through observation, clarity, awareness. Mind also can be tackled through observation. Nature of mind is to be restless. You cannot do anything about it. That is the way you are born. When nature of mind is restless, allow it to be restless. At the same time observe and be detached from it. Watch how the mind functions. When you watch how your mind functions for a period of time, it itself will stop functioning. The gap between thoughts becomes longer. The empty space gets extended. That is the place of peacefulness and silence. That becomes you and your character. Your expressions will change. You will operate with peace in the society. That attracts people to you. When we need something, it annihilates peace to certain extent. When you need nothing, peace happens within and expressions of peace within, happen outside. We will operate with unconditional love. We will love for the sake of love, and not out of any desire. We do not need anything from anybody. Once that happens, we are liberated. All thoughts, words and actions based on unconditional love are liberation. You will not take more births!

Otherwise, we keep coming back. There is so much of pending activity. If you are tired of today’s work in the office, you have to come back tomorrow and finish it! Is it not? Nobody else will help you. Same here!

The happening called Guru

Q: At which point is a person ready to become Guru?

A: A Guru should happen. You cannot become a Guru through doing. You can become an Acharya or a teacher through doing. If you learn from a lot of books, you can become an Acharya. You can be trained to become a teacher! To become a Guru, it should happen by itself. That means, ‘You becoming a Guru should happen to you’. Guru-ship or Gurudom should fall in place. That time you may not want to talk to anybody. A true Guru is deeply connected to the source and operates in perfect equanimity with no desires. Acharyas (teachers) are plenty. True Gurus are very rare.

Q: Is it similar to Tatwamasi?

A: No. What is tatwamasi? Thou art that! That means You are God. If it is just an intellectual understanding, it means nothing. When you repeat this understanding in mind, it means nothing. You become God by expressing God. What is God? Unconditional love, being full of love – you have no desires, your existence is for the sake of love. You exist in bliss state, beyond all duality. That is god hood.

Guru is absolutely detached. Look at Bhagawan Nityananda, Shirdi Baba. They wanted nothing. In 20th century, people were talking of haves and have nots! But, in India, we always had a third class, who could have everything if they had wanted, instead they wanted nothing. Tatwamasi is a great principle. If you understand Tatwamasi, it should be in experience and not intellectual understanding. People most of the time talk about ‘Tatwamasi, Aham Bramhasmi or I am God’ – that is probably out of intellectual understanding. The real core meaning of Tatwamasi is becoming Parabramha, Father or Allah, whatever name you want to call it by. Become that, be that. It is formless imperishable entity. The representation of that entity in you is your own soul. Be the soul. The soul needs nothing from you. It never interferes in your journey. When soul leaves the body, we call it a dead body. You will call it ‘X person’s body’. When soul exits body, the body has no meaning anymore. Soul takes away the name of the body.

We are such fragile creatures, and still we have a lot of ego. 80% of our vital functions are not controlled by us; heart beat, circulation, digestion, respiration. We take some silly decisions and then become egoistic about it. I am saying this for the sake of awareness. If our awareness level is high, we will accept our daily life as it is, and we will be peaceful. Suppose, someone tells you that ‘at such and such a date and time you will die’ – some people will panic as we are so attached to the body. They will feel, “Oh!, my body is going, what will I do now?” But, some people will be okay with it. They will accept it as a true possibility, an inevitability and will be comfortable with it.

We are worried about small, small things. Will I get parking today? We operate only in ‘this’ level of consciousness. Baba can give you enlightenment but you ask Baba for vehicle parking space!He can take you at the highest level of awareness. Every day you are asking about car parking! And you do get parking. Faith is working and we do not realize that faith is working. We do not use the available rope to climb to the highest point in this life, instead, we stay stuck in our mundane troubles associated with our daily existence.

Q: If faith is working, then why do we shift to so many Gurus?

A: There are two things. The first thing is that restless mind takes you to too many Masters. Mind says, “This is not good enough, look at him. Let’s go for somebody higher.” Usual result is disillusionment.

Second thing is, you elevate yourself to higher level and then the old Guru may not be able to teach you anymore. When you go from 2nd to 4th standard, the same teacher cannot teach you. In the 10th std another teacher must come. This is elevation. This way you will change your Gurus or rather, the guru may change. But this has to happen. Here, you are not changing anything. The new Guru is happening in your class. When mind says “I do not want this Guru, he smokes!” you are disowning that matter which would have elevated your consciousness because of your prejudice -you dis create your requirements from that particular Guru. He does not vibe with your prejudice. Naturally he will not. The problem is not with the available guru, but the mental image that you created for yourself. Your husband, son, daughter will also not obey exactly the way you want. Same like that. Another person who is Guru and you say he should not wear jeans and T-shirt! This is mind’s job. Mind is telling you. Mental images are blocking you. Then we change the Guru. We keep changing the Guru especially if the true guru dish out bitter pills, and finally, we do not know where we are going. Then you surrender. You say I had enough of this. Sometimes it goes to suicidal tendencies because you think you wasted your life. Most people spend their entire life in searching and not finding the Guru. When the actual Guru comes, you cannot identify him because your mental images blocks recognition! What a tragedy!!!

You already created mental pictures of Guru. You already bought the frame. If Guru fits into the frame, it is fine. What if Guru is bigger than the frame? We discard the Guru and not the frame. This is how we function. Let’s take a closer look at ourselves. We are indeed like that.

Q: What are the qualities of a Guru? If we are looking for Moksha, the liberation, then how do we know whether this guru will help us?

A: Qualities of a Guru depend on which class you are studying in and from which level you are operating. Do you know the class you are studying in? The Guru which comes in front of you is the right one for you. A student in 2nd standard cannot decide what kind of teacher he needs because he does not know. This is a basic truth. So, the teacher who comes in the class is the right one for you. If your quest is true, the right Guru will happen in your life. For that, we have to accept and be non-resistant. This is a fundamental principle of spirituality.

“The food that comes on table for you today is the medicine for you. So say the Vedas”.

We may not like the food nor maybe we never chose that food. We wanted biryani but got the dosa! If you accept that food as medicine, then there is no friction within. When there is no friction within, peace descends upon you. When peace descends, you operate at the level of equanimity. This continuously brings you good things.

In our path of Shiva, quality of Guru will be the one who helps in annihilation or destruction of all baggage, desire, vasanas, habits and all that is binding one to earth. More things will be shed from you. Look at all the Masters of Dattatraya tradition. They never wanted anything. They were leaving everything. They were detached from everything and helped people to stay detached or unattached.

Why does Shiva wear ash on the body? What does ash means? Ash means complete nullification of everything. Fire burns everything indiscriminately and forms ash. This is what exactly we are. Liberation happens out of ash. Shiva wears nullification on the body. It means I belong there – i.e in perfect nullified state. The principle of Shiva is dissolution. This is even bigger than Enlightenment. Do not confuse between enlightenment and dissolution.

The Enlightenment is a shift in consciousness when you develop a much larger awareness. The Nullification or Dissolution is a further process.

You have to observe each process and detach completely. Perfect ‘shanti’ then falls upon you. If you are on a path of leaving the house to go wandering, Guru for this path will happen to you. That Guru may not wear cloths or may not look crisp, clean or attractive in the terrestrial sense. But in a city like this, if someone does not wear the cloths, you discard the Guru! This is our level of operation. I have written about the Principles of Guru in one blog. I do not like to mince my words.

Whether same or different, love them all

Q: I talk to my colleagues and friends about the spirituality. But I get negative answers from them, most of the time. What is this?

A: You cannot force anybody. If you are here today, that means, you have that particular vasana and karma in you, that brought you here. Otherwise you would have been in a movie theatre. What made you come here may not be the same constitution for another person. That person may not understand what you are talking about. Do not force anyone. Tell them once, twice, and no more. If they are interested, they will come to you, asking more questions. If not, they are not interested and leave them alone.

My path is a no nonsense path. This is a path of annihilation. This is not a path of ‘feel good’.

This is the simplest possible path. The reason is this path is like a monkey child clinging onto mother monkey. It does not do anything apart from clinging onto the mother. Mother is climbing the tree. Shaktipat is the power that is changing you, not only this meditation. This meditation is just words and will work, if your mind stays within you, following it, without wandering off. If mind is unavailable, if words can change someone, everybody would be changing. The software change that happens within you is also through the Shaktipat. The Shaktipat burns the unwanted chaff or debris of karmas. This clears your path. This works at physical, mental, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and all other levels. It works in various planes. Each Shaktipat has the clear potential to make distinct changes in the receiver. It is life-changing. It is a very serious thing. All the people who are empowered to give Shaktipat have taken big responsibilities.

In answer to your question, if somebody does not come, it does not matter. If somebody comes it does matter, because there is reason for his/her coming here. We deliver with utmost purity and dedication with no second agenda.

Q: Should we ask people to come?

A: I usually DO NOT ask people to come for meditation. When this whole thing happened to me, I told all Masters that, “I am an introverted person. I cannot invite people and deliver talks”. Masters said, “That is not your problem. We will bring people to you.” So, I always believe that, those are attending my sessions or the BTW meditations, all over the world, are sent by the Masters.

I deliver whatever I can in one go and within your capacity or whatever you can effortlessly carry. Even if we do not meet again in life, I have delivered what I could today. Tomorrow if you bring a bigger bucket, I will fill it up too. Today you have received according to your capacity. What people get out of this class depends upon what sort of utensil they bring. If someone is inspired by you to attend this class, it is because their Karma drives them here. Their eligibility brings them here. We have a lot of desires which do not get fulfilled. Whatever we deserve – surely we will get it.This is the fundamental principle of life. If something has not come to you means you were not eligible for it. But our EGO does not allow us to understand and accept this.

You can tell people that you had a good experience. I always encourage people to write their experiences. Tomorrow your mind might say that, oh, that was an imagination. You can only start walking from where you are standing, right now. Similarly in Spirituality, start walking from which position you are standing in. If, you are in grade A, start from there and go to B, C, ….. Your mind may ask to jump to F or G; there is no shortcut, you must walk from A to G. This can happen through lifetimes, not only in this life. You have done what you could do in this life. You may continue in next life. Let it be. What is the big deal? Start walking from where you stand.

Guru is holding your hand. You are walking. Guru cannot walk on your behalf. Guru can secure your walk. He will not allow you to fall. He is just a road sign. He gives direction. Walking and travelling you have to do.

When you radiate That, all the friends gather

Similarly for your friends, tell them that it helped you. It suited you. They can try, if they like.

Take it if it suits you. Discard it if it does not suit you. If you approach with equanimity and objectivity, it will stay. But what happens in reality, we say ‘Oh, my Guru is the best and the perfect one!’ We sell the Guru. Then others get bored and probably suspicious. Friends may turn away thinking you are mad.

Q: Why is surrender so difficult for people?

A: EGO. Surrender means egolessness. When you prostrate, heart and head are in one line. Why we touch somebody’s feet? We consider that, this man, whose feet we are touching, exists in absolute consciousness. This is our assumption.

When we touch elderly people’s feet, that does not mean that they exist in absolute consciousness. We respect their age, experience and evolution. Actually, soul’s age should be considered and not the physical age. Physical age has no value because everyone will get old one day. Consciousness level in which he operates is the most important thing.

Enlightened masters like Shirdi Baba and Bhagawan Nityananda behaved like ordinary people or even like beggars. It confused people. How can he be an enlightened Master? Again, mental images block our vision. Our mind does not allow us to touch their feet. Mind pushes us to touch the feets of the glamourous, articulate and pompous, than the true and the real!!! Thus we miss great opportunities. He is available!! He is standing there with his feet for you! 🙂

Q: A question about the Shaktipat process – is it to correct the deficiency in the body or transfer the energy for the purpose of healing?

A: The tradition of Shaktipat is to speed up the spiritual process. You can do sadhana and achieve. Shaktipat aligns the system to receive the energy. The one who gives Shaktipat is able to handle much higher energy than a receiver. The bulb is only of 20 watts but electricity line carries much higher energy. Bulb is tuned to receive only 20 watts. When it is transferred, you receive the quantity that you can handle. So you are not burnt! It operates at physical level because it has healing powers. It operates at emotional level to heal emotions. It also operates at intellectual level so that you think clearly and your awareness can grow. It shifts your consciousness to a plane of spiritual progress. Your awareness is shifting, which you will know in the days to come. The Shaktipatenergy works over a period of time. The cleansing is continuously happening. You are evolving. Tomorrow your capacity will change. You will be given Shaktipat or will receive shaktipat according to your capacity.

Initiation – the sacred, eternal mark of Love

To be capable of giving Shaktipat, one needs initiation. The main criterion is that person should be operating from the level of purity, not from the level of desire (desire to become a Guru, desire to have money, etc.). It has to come to you. If you decide, that desire becomes your blockage. When you are pure, the perfection of transfer happens. Receiver and the giver are in perfect mode. The receiver will get what he or she deserves.

Q: What is the purpose of being in Dharma mode?

A: Dharma is not a purpose. It is a pure duty. Animals always operate on dharma mode. Sun. moon and stars operate in dharmic mode. They have a specific system of operation. If there are lot of deers and few tigers, a tiger will never kill a deer for sake of fun or to control the population! Tiger will kill a deer only when he is hungry. We humans do not do that. We kill for pleasure. Thus it becomes Karma. The Sun is rising every day. It does not say “I am tired today; I will come tomorrow.” Dharma is the base and basis of the universe. Karma is the basis for individual life and its corresponding happenings and experiences.